1. Joys of GPRS: I am now blogging from my mobile phone. I should have figured this out before. All it took me was 5 minutes…
2. The joy of just doing it: The fact that I figured this stuff in 5 minutes, made my belief in ‘now’ stronger.
3. Take out time to make a playlist of all your happy songs. They charge you with positive energy while you commute to work. And when you’re driving back, it helps you unwind.
4. Eat! Well the diet may not permit it but just a tiny bite of the cookie you’re craving for is worth the calories.
5. Driving by the sea in lashing rain makes you want to stop the car, get out and dance in the rain!
6. Sometimes its okay to stop the car once in a while.
7. Posting from the mobile is fun!

While walking down a clean beach early one morning, I came across an almost dead starfish. It was stuck in the sand, stagnated. There was an urge to pick the fish up and take him home, and match it with the starfish in the book- 1001 words. But as I went down on my knees to pick the blue-grey wonder, it moved its tentacles, begging for another chance. The sea must have heard it; the chilly early morning sea wave splashed its transparent self onto the beach and washed the starfish back with it, freeing it from the sand that held it. The sea must have wanted me to have him too; another wave splashed on my foot a tickling feeling. And there it was; the star fish at my feet, resigned to its fate, stuck in the sand, motionless.

I picked it up, and stared at it. I decided to walk with it on my palm through the waking village. They later told me that it was very rare to find a starfish in Malvan. I saw no meaning in it. Until the angel who was taking care of me then whispered to me, ‘It is here to remind you my girl, that no matter how big your problems seem to you, they will always be small as compared to the universe. Look at this little starfish and think of how big his problem was, being stuck in the sand. Look how small it was to you-his problem.’

The softness of its body had changed into hardness within a day as the experience in the world outside the ocean dried it up. But it sat there, to remind me of my negligible existence in the universe!

It’s been sometime since I have done nothing and not felt guilty. It all seemed worth the 12 hours travel. Just seeing the sea swish into the sand…Just to sit in the peaceful little temples…Just to show around my friends…just to feel proud as they admire your village.

It’s like coming home. It’s like coming home to my roots. It’s like coming home to my great-grandmother; it’s like coming home to my grandparent’s childhood. It’s like many things. It’s like me…

The first time I came to Malvan, I was this 11 year old talkative girl who wanted to be at the beach 24/7. When I wasn’t splashing in the water, I wanted to draw water from the wlls, even if it meant pulling up a ‘kalshi’ double my weight. Malvan… I just love the place. Every place has a story to tell… about my great-grandparents, grandparents, dad and even my uncles. Every place I go to, I wish for a time machine to see my grand father studying, to see my grandmother playing with her friends and to see my great grandmother teach her illiterate self how to read and write just to teach my grandfather to make sure he has a great future. Having heard so many stories from Manuai and Papa, I have enough anecdotes associated with every place in Malvan. Even when I take the boat to Sindhudurga, I remember how their boat toppled 13 years ago and how my grandmother saw the super clean sea floor. Every place I go to has me smiling randomly… if someone were to see me; they would surely think I am mad.

I realized that though I have no personal memories with this place, I have a legacy of memories that I get from my family. I never realized that earlier and kept wondering why I am so drawn to Malvan. But then this time I came to Malvan for the first time with my friends and not with family as usual. And while I showed them around, I realized that everything is so personal for me and every thing is so full of random memories.

These two friends of mine, Ashwini and Lathia, keep saying thank you because I got them here… but how do I say thanks to them… because they made me realize so much and see things about malvan so differently. They made this trip so different from the usual malvan trips that I have. Because of them for the first time, I was the one telling stories about malvan rather than being the one who was told stories…

These moments, they are amazing,
Why can’t they last just a bit longer?
Why can’t these birds keep singing?
Why can’t the waves splash a while more?
Why can’t I sit here on the sands of time,
Without them passing…

A moment can’t be a day long,
It’s like the flowing wind’s song,
It’s like the waves that splash, touch you,
And then are gone.

You stand there with the feeling,
The feeling of being touched by that wave,
Just then another wave splashes,
And washes away the touch of the earlier wave.